“Houston, We Have Special”

soooooo I did a thing!

Hi everyone!!! This week we have a guest recap from the wickedly talented writer, thinker, and friend Christiane Swenson. I’ll toss in some thoughts after their recap, but, for now… Christiane? Roll it:

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Thank God Rob asked me to recap this week in particular, because this was one of the tightest, funniest episodes of Succession this season, written by geniuses Georgia Pritchett and Will Arbery, in which the Waystar gang attempts to break into the experience economy with “Living+” — basically a combo of Disney’s gated communities and Peter Thiel’s youth-blood-harvesting scheme — while fielding crises and nervous breakdowns left and right. Let’s get into it.

SUGGESTED TALKING POINTS:

The Boys Are Out of Control

• Deeply enjoyed how the episode bookends with Kendall and Roman watching the equivalent of “POV your dad berates you for your lack of business intellect/micropenis” voice-generated tiktoks, just to feel something.
• The lead-up to the product launch plays out like an unlimited-budget version of “entertaining the grown-ups after dinner with a skit you forced your siblings to do with you.” The total immaturity and petulance of both Roman and Kendall is a recurring topic this episode; Rome tries to emulate his dad, which fails, and Kendall, reinvigorated by grief and delusion, knocks it out of the park…for now???
• There’s a brief threat of Mattson destabilizing the whole Living+ launch with an edgelord tweet — tbh, the Elon parallels feel like the most weakly realized bits of Mattson’s character, but whatever. The interplay between Hugo and Roman re: Matsson’s deleted tweet was great.

Failmarriage Stays Winning

• “Tom/Shiv soft-reconciliation” was on my list of season predictions, but I didn’t think it would happen this ep. I’ll say it: Shiv is at her hottest and most powerful doing business-as-sex/sex-as-business.
• The postcoital-party scene was the highlight of the episode to me — Sarah Snook and Matthew Macfadyen are such wonderful scene partners, especially as the unhinged aspects of their relationship escalate. It feels like we’re getting more and more shades of their early courtship, particularly with the insane repartee and power-plays this ep.
• Worth noting that Shiv lost the game of Bitey against Tom — in both the boardroom and the bedroom, she can dish it out but she can’t take it. Tom winning at the game she invented feels like the perfect encapsulation of their relationship right now.

Romangerris Stay Winning

• It feels like J. Smith-Cameron has been benched for the last few episodes, so I’m thrilled to see that Gerri’s season arc is beginning in earnest:
• After Roman impulsively fires Waystar Studios exec Joy Palmer (played by a scene-stealing Annabeth Gish), Gerri takes him to task in private, describing his behavior as that of “a weak monarch in a dangerous interregnum.” Roman attempts to lash out with his newfound power. But he comes off as petulant and pathetic instead. We all know Gerri holds the not-so-metaphorical leash in this relationship. She’s the only one that can actually cut Roman down to size, because she’s the only (living) person whose opinion he truly respects.
• Side note: these are the most loose-fitting garments we’ve seen Roman in in a minute. There’s something crotchety and Loganesque about the cut of his shirt in particular; he’s a kid playing dress-up.

Top 4 Insane Kendall Roy Moments this ep:

4. Demanding clouds on stage, then being ruefully disappointed at the quality of the clouds; scrapping an expensive project that probably took all night on a whim

3. Every single time he does that weird little smile

2. Drawing “1” in the sand with his foot to reinforce his status as Number One Boy

1. Speaking to a greenscreen of his dead father

SIDE NOTES

• All the bit players and attendant lords are getting a lot of strong scenes this final season. Karl and Kendall in particular had a great dance between a low-status character and the unpredictable boy-prince himself
• Gerri, Karl, and Frank getting to Statler-and-Waldorf it up in the mezzanine was an episode highlight.
• Shout out, again, to Annabeth Gish as Joy.
• Shout out to Shiv’s sex hair/Allotted Crying Time.
• Shout out to dude with a cocktail shaker in the opening shot of the party scene. Really excellent shaking and face expressions.
• I feel like Nicholas Braun is going to age terribly while the rest of the Roy siblings will get hotter and hotter.
• I wonder if Mattson has guys on his payroll who make the memes for him or if he just fires up imgflip.com on his phone and goes nuts?

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Let’s give a hearty recap shoutout to Christiane!

They are correct in pointing out that this is one of the wackiest and silliest episodes in recent Succession history. The writers are so good at tightening the screws of dramatic tension for a few episodes and then releasing the pressure for a nerve-shredding and wacky romp.

It’s simultaneously disquieting and exciting to see the different directions the kids are taking. Kendall is taking the empty-headed, coked-up route of an “ideas guy”, spouting nonsense to a crowd of other rich people. Shiv is sneaking around, playing double agent between Matsson (please don’t fuck Matsson, Shiv.) and the greater Waystar apparatus. Meanwhile, Roman is acting like a Fischer-Price fascist, making terrible business decisions out of spite.

As dramaturg and fiancée Margo Skornia pointed out, Kendall and Roman continue to fire vague, general business notions back and forth because they are too obsessed with looking cool to make any fucking sense.

They all think they’re doing what their dad would do, but at least Logan was shrewd in the business arena. If Logan were faced with the questions Joy handed to Roman, he would probably have some polite platitude and keep the status quo before losing his mind in a private meeting.

Anyway, justice for Gerri. I think the best thing for everyone is for her to run the show. And then she can fire Roman!

Is Shiv still pregnant? Does she care? Did Greg try to invent AI? Are Karl and Frank actually good at their jobs?

These are the questions that consume us.

Have a great week, and we’ll see you next week for more shenanigans.